Summary 👇
Editorial
Introducing Madrid World Music (MWM), a new concert series, by Madresierra
About Visa for Music
Talk with Said Chaouch, from Worldmusic Oasis in Gothenburg
Upbeat Platform: Best New Talent Award For Zarina Prvasevda
Brief news from the media, charts and sister projects
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Hello, how are you?
I am well. On this occasion I wanted to open this editorial section with a photo not only of me, but of this artistic team that has worked on one of my milestones of the year, the show Beyond Al-Andalus, for which I have collaborated with Birgit Ellinghaus, from alba Kultur. She is in charge of several concerts each season in the Mozart Hall of the Alte Oper Frankfurt.
The artists have been Vigüela (old friends, you probably already know), the sister duo from León Tsacianiegas and the charming Galician singer and tambourine player Tania Caamaño. Each time something like this happens I feel that magic has been created, that the stars have aligned, that providence has seen fit to give me this unforgettable moment. On the other hand, as the world goes, it seems that this is a delicate marvel that could break at any moment.
Honestly, I am in one of those very stressful moments, I hope you will forgive me if there are any typos. I am writing this the day before I travel again, to Manchester this time, to the annual meeting of the European Folk Network, at the same time as for English Folk Expo. Back on Saturday night and early Tuesday morning, flying again, to Coruña. I have the honor of being called to mentor some delegates (by the way, this is starting to be more or less usual and I am open to requests of mentoring) and I love it but I’ll have to get up at 3am…. As my father would say, may all sorrows be like that. Totally agree.
I hope this content is of interest to you. I have enjoyed it very much. The conversation with Said was great. And to be able to announce that in my land there is a new world music programming initiative is a great joy. You will see it below and they are open to proposals. Thank you for your attention.
Remember: if you have any news of interest for our community, let me know. Thank you very much for your attention.
Araceli Tzigane | Mapamundi Música | +34 676 30 28 82
INTRODUCING MADRID WORLD MUSIC (MWM), A NEW CONCERT SERIES, BY MADRESIERRA
A couple of weeks ago I saw on Instagram that Huun-Huur-Tu were coming to Madrid. It was announced by Madresierra‘s profile, whose slogans in the Bio are “💫 Cultural promoter of exclusive sounds 💫 🥁 World Music Movement 🌍”.
I didn’t know about this initiative so I inquired and saw that my friend Patricia Alvarez, dancer, researcher and creator, had them in her circle of contacts. She put me in the background and I got in touch. I asked Juan Cobo for a statement to present his initiative. And here they are. Obviously, I was very happy to learn about this new initiative in Madrid and I hope it goes very well and that they can establish themselves strongly.
They are open to proposals so, if you have something for them, contact them on their Instagram. I leave you with Juan’s words:
“I am Juan Cobo, creator of Madresierra, a Spanish cultural promoter of exclusive sounds. We present Madrid World Music (MWM), a cycle that aims to bring to Madrid (Spain) root music, ethnic music, music from any corner of the planet that has emerged from the earth itself. A place for the restless spectator, who wants to feed his soul and intends to discover other sound and cultural worlds.
MWM only has a start date, not an end date, nor intermediate dates. We are collecting proposals, and when they touch our hearts, we look for the best way to program them. Likewise, it will be itinerant, since depending on the type of artist, the space will be one or another: concert hall, theater, auditorium, non-conventional spaces…
We know that it is a difficult job, since in our country it is difficult to spread this kind of sounds, but we also know that there is a huge minority of people who love this kind of music. We see it as an opportunity to attract a type of public that, in our opinion, is becoming orphaned of “ethnic” spaces. Festivals like Etnosur, Pirineos Sur or La Mar de Músicas, which were born with this “label”, are turning to a more commercial programming, without so much exclusivity, since they repeat names that are already in other Spanish “multi-style” festivals.
We will cover this target and we are waiting for your proposals!”
VISA FOR MUSIC WILL TAKE PLACE: RABAT 22-25 NOVEMBER
When we knew about the earthquake in the Atlas mountains and it’s effect in cities like Marrakech, I though Visa for Music might be cancelled but no: not only is it not cancelled, but also, the box office income will be donated to special funds to support earthquake relief efforts.
This will be the 10th edition of the event. Learn more on their website.
– MEET ME IN BRUSSELS –
While I was writitting this, I received an email that made me very happy, with this drawing of Ali Doğan Gönültaş’s in for the banner for Muziekpublique. This is the reason why I can’t attend Visa for Music. On day 22nd I will be in Brussels for the premiere in Belgium of Ali Doğan Gönültaş. Here you have all the details. It will be at the Théâtre Molière, managed by Muziekpublique, the organization of Peter Van Rompaey, a lantern of culture in Europe. I made a long interview with Peter, that you can read in this previous edition. This concert is part of the tour Klangkosmos, produced by alba Kultur, lead by Birgit Ellinghaus, another landmark for our community, who has been mentioned often here. For instance, here you are an interview with her.
AND NOW THE FLOOR IS FOR:
SAID CHAOUCH, FROM WORLDMUSIC OASIS
Said will attend Visa for Music. He told me that this is the reason why he won’t come to WOMEX this year. He explained to me about the meaning of this kind of events, like Visa for Music, for him. Below you can read about it.
I took this so nice portrait of Said from the page About us, from www.worldmusicoasis.com. I think I may have crossed paths with Said at a Womex but we never spoke in person until a few days ago. I think that in this photo, the photographer has captured the warmth that I have felt in Said in the long conversation we had through the screen. That’s why I have chosen it to open this interview.
When we spoke to make the appointment, he told me that he was finishing a job. It’s about the book of which you have the cover here below. He was going on a trip soon and we would talk when he returned. The purpose of the book is to explain the concept or term “world music” from his own experience. He explains that “The term has been subject of criticism since it have been created. What is world music, how to define the term, why people dislike the term.” In the book, he is trying answer those questions through interviews with 50 music experts, journalists, producers, etc… and telling the story about how he started a music store in Sweden. The book will be published and available on his website soon. I will send news about it when it is already available.
Here below you will learn the steps that made he set the store Worldmusic Oasis, and many other interesting facts.
Mapamundi Música: You founded Worldmusic Oasis, a shop in Gothenburg, to sell world music mainly, you sell also jazz and other styles… but what led you to establish the store? Why did you start this?
Said Chaouch: This is an interesting question. In my book, which hopefully will come soon – but this book is not to sell, it is book just for friends and the people who like music – there I explain a little bit more how when I moved from France. I was living in Paris before, and I was playing in France as musician street. Just as a hobby, you know. I´m born as a painter and studied painting, not as a musician but both go into each other. I´have been playing music for fan but don’t want to call myself a musician.
Akli D comes from the same area in Algeria. We lived not far from each other. He did play music already in Algeria before he left to France in the beginning of the 80s. We meet often in Paris outside Centre Georges Pompidou where we shared the place and played for fun for tourists. Akli didn’t have a band at that time, he was just playing with his guitar. We were many sharing the place and the streets in Saint Michel. I left him in Paris where he succeeded with his career and met 20 years later in a concert in Paris. He recognized me.
Manu Chao helped, Akli, like he did with Amadou and Marian, at the same time. He made a big success, he was everywhere, but was really a short time. He made and international career and I moved to Sweden because, at the time, I have met a girlfriend in Sweden. That’s reason I moved to Sweden.
MM: The usual reason to move, hehe.
SC: But then, the problem was that when you arrived in Sweden it was not like if you move from Paris to Madrid or to Milano or to Athena. Sweden was special that time. There were not many foreigners. Now it’s something else. But at that time, it was a cold, quiet, calm country… So, I thought “Here, I can’t stay”. And at the same I had my girlfriend; I had moved for her. So, I had to find something to compensate. So, at that time, 1985 it was that time when the word music had start in France: between 1983 until 1987 it’s that time where there were many many artists playing in France. So, the world music had started exactly that period when I left. So, Sweden was for me really empty. I had to find a compensation in Sweden. I am musician and if I went to a shop to buy a North African record or a Latin record, they were not. Even in the three big stores in Sweden, in the three biggest ones, you could find, maybe, in the world music section, maybe 10 records and that 10 records were traditional drums records. It was empty, there was nothing.
So, each time went to Paris there were friends who told me “Please, Said, can you bring for me Franco’s album? Can you take me…?” You know, so each time I went to Paris I returned with a bag of 50 CDs. So, I thought there was a market in Sweden. And I had to find something both to get money and to get back to me the atmosphere that I had in France and that I was missing. It was for me as oxygen. I need it. It was not for the money. I needed to get this people around me. That is how I started the store. And the store was really unique, except one which had opened a few years before me in Stockholm called Multi Kulti, but now they don’t exist anymore. But after them, mine was the second biggest store in…, not only Sweden, maybe in whole Scandinavia, even from Norway, Denmark and Finland. My specialty was world music. And it was the people who gave it’s the name. They said it was an oasis of world music, which was true. So the name is really meaningful.
Important – I would never have been able to have such a long career in music without the enormous work of my wife Eva, who encouraged me to open the store and who supported me in the shadows during all these years while working as much as me in addition to her full-time job.
You may feel like reading on while listening to the aforementioned Akli D:
MM: Where were you born?
SC: I was born in Algeria and I have grown in Algeria. But after the high school I moved to Paris. I moved to study painting. I have made many exhibitions. My career should have been more of a painter than a musician but it was difficult. It was difficult for a foreigner to get a job, as a painter or as an artist, it was difficult to survive. So I had to leave it on the side and continue with music. And it worked well, especially at the beginning with the store, because it was needed. It was an empty market in Sweden. At that time, there were people maybe from 100 nationalities who came to the store: people from Namibia… There were two persons from… let’s say, from India living here. They spoke to each other. At that time there was no WhatsApp, there was no Facebook… The people told to each other about the shop in Gothenburg where you could find music from Sri Lanka or music from Sudan or music from Somalia… The news spread really quickly.
MM: So you had those two objectives when you made the shop, the make your living, to get income, and also to fulfil this gap that you were feeling. And it run well between the people. You didn’t need to make advertisements or nothing…
SC: No, no, no, that time there was no Facebook no WhatsApp. But the information spread really quickly. People talked on the telephone. And they called me on the phone. It was fun but it was also too much work, because I learnt about the artists from the people, from the customers who came to buy. Let’s say there was someone from India who came to the store and asked about about Zakir Hussein. At that time, I didn’t know about Zakir. So I learned all the artists through the customers who had come and asked me about their musicians. There was not a book where to read about all the artists.
MM: What is the situation right now about this? Because it’s totally different. Now everybody’s on the internet.
SC: Exactly. That is one of the reason why I am writing in this book I talked about before. 10 years ago, when the CDs began to disappear, when it came the crisis with the CDs, it was really difficult: I found myself with a stock of CDs. All my economy, all that I have got under 20 years buying records, I found that I can’t sell them anymore. So it affected me really too much. And it was before Covid. But at the same time I lucky because the vinyl came back. It made a compensation for the CDs. The price of the vinyls is high, so all the vinyls I had allowed me to continue.
And at the same time what have helped me is that, thanks to the contacts I made through the records, I began to book artists. At that time, around 1995, I was maybe the only one in Sweden who had the telephone number to call the African artists. There was no Internet, and I had the contact of most of the African and Arab artists in France through the records companies I bought records from. And the records companies, each time I went to France to buy records, asked me if I can book their artist in Sweden. That’s how I booked Papa Wemba. That’s how I book him the first time he came to Sweden. Or Tinariwen, with whom I have good contact, I was the first who booked them in Gothenburg. Or Orquestra National de Barbes. So when the crisis of CDs came, I compensated it with clubs, I have different music clubs, and booking artists. I compensated it with clubs, opening different music clubs, booking artists, DJing and giving lectures about world music.
And then the Covid, of course, came and destroyed everything again. There were no concerts, I could not sell records… It was a really tough period where I thought it was not possible to continue to pay the rent for a big local… At that time, I started to think to make the website. Until that time, I have thought about website because it was for me enough to sell for the people here and I didn’t need to sell for the people outside Sweden. Already the market in Sweden was already enough. But when the crisis came, I thought now it’s the new world we are living in, so we have to make now good website and try to get more contact with the world.
| In addition to ordering records, the Worldmusic Oasis website has a lot of interesting content. For example, the summary of Said’s presentation about world music, which you can read here. |
MM: So you make also bookings… So you have all these different lines of activity with music but why do you have this engagement with music? You say you were a musician yourself when you were in Paris. But your path was going to be a painter, not a musician. But what is your relationship with music? Because at the end all your life has been devoted to music. How did this start in your life? Were your parents musicians or did you study music in Algeria?
SC: About the painting, when I was in school, at six or seven years, I was already the best in painting. That was already in my heart, in my mind. But you know, I have grown in a country where the artists don’t have a high value so I was a good artist but I knew that I couldn’t make the living as an artist because I can make an exhibition and people come, they can write good review, “oh, you are wonderful” and that’s all. So I came to France to continue study painting in the University. It didn’t work as planned for different reasons. I worked in small jobs and left behind the studies.
But in France I started to play music for fun, not professional, just in the weekend to meet friends. And then I moved to Sweden and I was missing the world music. When you have grown listening to listen African music, Arabic music and you find yourself with nothing… I am a social person. I have grown up in society where there are 100 persons around me. So to find yourself just with your love, in a small apartment… It’s it was not enough for me. In Sweden that time you had to choose to work in Volvo and I was not made for Volvo, you know, I am and artist. And the world music has given me the chance to travel all around. I have been everywhere in the world, I have met people and that’s for me… it’s not the money, you know.
There is someone who writes in a newspaper here in Sweden and said when Said’s career is finished, he will not be rich in money but his career is full of meetings, of all these people I have met, all these artists I have met, I have a book, I have spent the time. For me that is the sense of the life. It’s not to get a big house, you know. Maybe if you compare all that money I have spent on this, maybe I could have six big houses but it’s not that what I was looking for.
MM: No, no, of course, you need to make meaningful things for you and also for the world, I think. Your passing through the Earth must make something, not just being one part of the chain. I feel very similar, not with the recordings, but with the booking and management of artists so I feel very identified with all this you are explaining about traveling in the world for music. Yeah, I understand you.
I wanted to ask you, you are advisor for several organizations that make concerts there. When you book or advice about an artist, which could be the characteristics that the artist will have for being interesting for you?
SC: There is a hard competitions today for artists. My personal advice for an artist is to find a new music concept and:
• Forget the boring artists’ standard
• Mix your music with other genres, like that you can hear everywhere in the planet.
• Make your music universal
• Find your own look to attract curiousity
• use Youtube
• Invest to participate into music markets
• Keep a good relations with promotors
• Don’t give up
I work with different venues in Gothenburg, with Norway too, with Oslo I have a good collaboration. Each time they bring an artist to Oslo they send it to me to Gothenburg. We have four venues in Gothenburg. So when I find an interesting artist, I contact the venues. Sometimes, if it’s empty, I mean, it’s not booked already… To compare with my friend in Oslo, they have their own venue but I collaborate with different venues. But as I have said, if I have to give advice of what artist was working well, let’s say we have two different category of artist: you have artists like Fatoumata Diawara, Amadou and Marian, Salif Keita, it is something else. Those artists cost a lot and you need big budget. So for a small booker it’s a little bit difficult, especially now. With these big artists you have to be 100 % sure that the money you give for Fatoumata Diawara or Salif Keita, you’ll get it. But at the same time, me personally I have followed Amadou and Marian since 15 years, I’ve see them in their career, but there are today good artists, like Ali (Doğan Gönültaş), Bab L’ Bluz … all these small artists who are making really fantastic work you know… Altin Gun… I have booked Tamikrest the last time… These artists are really good and don’t cost too much and they are interesting.
For me, you know, I get too many emails from different artist, each day we get, sometimes from promoters, sometime from the artists themselves… And we are limited in how much we can book. I mean I can’t book just to satisfy the artist because it must work, of course. So that sometimes can be a bit difficult to explain to the artist that, of course, I like it, you know, but you have to find the right time, the moment, the place…
A good advice for a promotor is to work work work work work work work, I mean, for instance, like Thijs, the promotor of Tamikrest, he is a good promoter, working, sending mail, calling… You have to develop a good contact between promoters as friendly contact, not only business contact. Personal contact really helps a lot.
MM: Especially in this field of music, the world music, I mean, the personal contact is especially important. Because maybe in in pop and rock is not.
SC: No, no, no, that is different because in the pop the work is already done. But for the world music… Ali, a good artist, very known in Turkey but not too many people know him in Europe, so if you just send an email about Ali, it’s not enough. But when you get the contact, I mean, you trust the promoter, I became more curious with Ali now. That is the way to get a good contact for both, for the artist, for the promoter… Sometimes to be honest you don’t have the time to read all the mail.
MM: I understand, it happens to me in the other side, I am contacted by many artist who want to me to be their manager…
SC: That’s why I like Visa for Music, which I have helped a lot from Sweden to promote it, because there you come closer to the artists, really closer, as friends, and even promoters. You come really close. You go to take a cup of coffee with the promoter, you speak, you get more information from promoter around the cup of coffee… It’s more than just to send an mail for thousands of persons.
Let’s listen to Tamikrest and send a greeting to Thijs Vandewalle:
MM: Which do you think is the future for the recorded music? You explained to me how it was with the CDs, after CDs went down, vynils came super strong and so… What is going to be the future of recording music? Do you think there will still be needed physical editions or will they disappear?
SC: I think it will disappear, honestly. Now, for the record labels, it is good to produce vinyl. Everybody want to have the vinyl but nobody listen. They have it as a decoration at home. And the price of a normal vinyl is 30 euro. But the young people won’t buy them. This period of the vinyl will take maybe 5 or 10 years but it will not survive, because now the people need to listen quickly they, to find quickly and everything go fast today.
MM: I wanted to tell you something that I learned yesterday. A journalist here from Spain explained to us something that can give you a hope about the physical editions. There is an online distributor here in Spain called Altafonte. They are distributors not only for Spanish artists also for American artists, but they are working internationally. And recently they decided to remove the accounts, first for the artists in the Spotify who had less than 500 listeners every month, and after, less than 1000. So you are in the hands of this third part, the distributor, and you are not independent, you depend totally on this third part for your distribution of your music. So maybe this is a risk that the artist have to face. They have to understand that this can happen at any moment. Spotify or any of the others can change their criteria or your digital distributor in which you delegated your distribution, can change the rules and can say “okay, I delete your account, or you have to pay me X amount or whatever…” and they don’t own the channel. So they are in the risk of losing all their distribution. Maybe this will start to happen more often.
This I am talking about, Altafonte, is a Spanish distributor, founded in Spain, but they are working not only for Spain, they work for all the world, they are a digital distributor who puts the music of the artists in the several platforms. Ad they decided that they are not going to support little artists. They will remove them from the platforms because it doesn’t return money, even when the cost is very little because it is only administrative work, but it is not worthy for them to deal with the administration of having very little accounts of a musicians.
I wanted to tell you because they don’t get money from very little artists who have very few listeners, but they have to work in the administration, making reports and these kinds of things. So they deleted them.
SC: But they have to understand that each artist needs a time to be known, to get more people. If you take for instance Altin Gun, from Turkey, no one knew them at the beginning. So the distributor has to support them. To this is not Rolling Stones what you are distributing, let’s say, it is not Manu Chao.
MM: Yes, but these digital distributors, these companies who are making this, they have thousands of artists. There is not an editorial line that they support, no. They just give the service, they put your music in Spotify and in other platforms and they have thousands of artists. So if you are one of those artists, they are not going to push you because they have thousands. If you don’t have enough return, they remove you. There is no editorial or promotional intention in these companies.
SC: That’s the monopole of the Big Industry who decides now who can be good or not good, you know. That’s why when I have been to Visa for Music, there I have met really young people, new people, good artists who need support. That’s why one of my goals working with world music is to try how to help these good artists who haven’t money. I mean, you can come to WOMEX, but which artists have enough money to come to WOMEX? So if at some time I have to make speech at WOMEX I have to say that WOMEX needs to help, to try to make small WOMEX in India one time, like they are doing with WOMAD, you know WOMAD is changing the place. So we have to do the same with WOMEX, to get little bit chance for people in Sri Lanka, in Vietnam… to be known. So that is the big challenge for the future. It’s not having Salif turning 60 years. I mean, I am happy that he still works but… you understand what I mean, you know.
|
The problem with visas appeared in the conversation with Said. It is a tragedy indeed. This topic was recently discussed at the MaMA event, with Cécile Héraudeau and Sébastien Laussel, from Zone Franche. All the details are here. And this is a part of the presentation text: “Artists from Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso without visas: an exceptional situation or a systemic problem? The instruction issued by the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs on Tuesday 12 September informing of the decision “to suspend, until further notice, all cooperation with the following countries: Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso” and urging cultural actors to do likewise, “as France will no longer issue visas to nationals of these three countries without exception”, led to unanimous reactions throughout the cultural sector.” |
MM: Yes, Said… This that you are talking about now is a big concern I am having recently, especially when I started to work with Ali but not only. The last times I’ve have been interviewing people from more complicated countries like Lebanon for instance, or Imed Alibi from Tunisia. And well this the people I talk with, of course, they are inside the industry, let’s say. But I think about so many artists that are excluded from this. You say “how are they going to come to WOMEX? They don’t have money to fly, of course, of course. But even, more basically, many artists they are out from the circuit of even knowing what WOMEX is. And they are there, and they are making wonderful things but they are not in the industry. The industry is totally looking to other side. And there is the other world that we don’t imagine, out from the industry. And me, Mapamundi is me. With Juan Antonio we make Mundofonías. But we are so little… And you are also you one person fighting all your life against all those crises. So what are we going to do to, somehow, try to amend this? Because there are so many artists totally excluded. They won’t even apply for WOMEX. What can we do?
SC: Your initiative to contact me is itself a great idea to cooperate in the future. Yes, I’m someone with long experience in the world music, working without a big publicity about me. You found me because you are curious about music and musicians. Each person, artist, have something to give. Never underestimate people. The people should learn to take intitiative like you, so that together we can get through the monoply of the music industry. Your contact made me very happy. I said to myself, here’s someone who understood what is going on. Together we can do a lot for the musicians and for the world in general. Music bring peace, help poverty and create jobs. We talk always about the new releases, the music charts, concerts, festivals but never how complicated it is the situation of artists. The visa problem, the war in Niger, sub-Saharan refugees. The problem of today is that we don’t know each other well as promoters or music experts, except by Facebook or Instagram or when we meet it is always in hurry somewhere in some exhibitions changing visit card witch we don’t know from where it comes. We need to come closer.
But we have to meet to speak about these problems. Because no one speaks about these problems. You go to WOMEX, you have artists performing, people they come, they sign a contract and that’s it. But all the work behind, like we have said, all the small artists who need to come, all the small promoters… I was on the way to go to Bangladesh but their Festival is cancel… I was very interested in going to Bangladesh to discover musicians there which I know they can do much in Europe when the people discovered them and at the same time you help these artists. I mean we can’t only think about the money, we have to think to find the better way than just to meet five minutes, interchange visit cards quickly. From Sweden I have tried to help Visa for Music because I know there are poor artists who are coming there and who are good. And through Visa for Music, many artists have succeeded, gnawa groups are touring now in the world, you have Bab L’ Bluz, you have really many artists who have been discovered through this small festival.
For us, small promoter and small artists, we need each other and to be closer and again, this contact can by the chance for the artist. It’s not a favour you make for the friend, no, it’s not that concept. I mean if Ali come to Stockholm I will try because he’s a good artist. I believe that people need to discover these artists. So of course, I do my best to help the artist best and the audience, because I know the audience trust me. When I bring an artist they know that Said brings something good.
MM: It’s a great idea to talk between us about these things because, as you said, WOMEX is a is a business and I understand we can’t ask them to resolve this situation because it is a private company. They also have to fight for their salaries, they have to make their work and they have to have profit. So all this conversation of the last minutes is something parallel to the industry and how to include these people. For me, the important is that these people in those countries get a better living and that their art is not lost and is known in the rest of the world. Because it makes me so happy when I listen wonderful things. For instance I have tried to bring an Albanian band to Western Europe. The musicians that are wonderful but they don’t speak English. The flights are super complicated and they have to go by road to Tirana… So it’s so complicated for someone like me. I have to convince someone to give me 10,000 euros for bringing them to Spain or to Portugal. And sometimes who has that money doesn’t have that sensitivity to realise this is worth of it. So this is the fight I have inside me, how to make this, because these people are over there and the rest of the world is losing their art, we are not enjoying that and, also, the people in those countries, with the time they will just do other things. If they can’t make a good living in their life with music they will just quit music, they will do other things and we all will lose this. So I’m very concerned about this.
SC: There is something too which we have think about, there is a second problem with visas, you know. It makes me sick because I have direct contact with artists. Now from Niger, the last time they haven’t come, even Tinariwen, you know, they are big. They have cancelled the tours of the last year. I have been with Tinariwen in their home in Sahara, they are not interested in living in Paris or in New York, you know. They are not. They are making their job and they return. There are big artists like Fatoumata Diawara and Amadou and Marian, they have to unite and to speak about these problems, to put pressure on the government. The artists together they can make too much pressure on the government. Like in the 80s, there was a big gala of solidarity for the people in Ethiopia.Now there are too many things happening with all these refugees in Mali, in Niger… you know. I mean, who can speak about them. if they are not the artists? Some artists don’t even get visa, even if there is a promoter to pay everything. Me and you, of course, together with the artists, with all these people, we can make pressure to the governments. For instance, if you get a card of artist, you have to get visa, there’s no discussion about it. But this solidarity is again needed but no one speaks about it. Maybe if an artist didn’t come, the day after, the newspaper writes that it is because they didn’t get the visa. So, again, we have to together, media, promoters, artists… There is too much work left.
MM: Yes and we have to identify who else has this thinking because maybe not everybody cares about this, yeah.
SC: Exactly, you are right, that’s why we have to make people understand that. We must be united to fight against the monopoly of the big industry, as an exemple, the ones from Spotify. The meetings on WOMEX can’t be just to promote artists and be a meeting place for promoters. There are other problems we need to talk about. It needed more panels and people engaged to raise visa problem.I’d hope there will be more engagement from artists as Youssou Ndour, Salif Keita, Manu Chao, etc… to organize charity concerts, to find a way how to do charity concerts to help people, as it was done before. These artists has a big power to put pressure on government.
MM: Next year WOMEX is in Manchester. For some more people it is a problem because even the Serbians, for instance, need visa for going to United Kingdom. So it could be a good frame to talk about this.
– After this latest reflection, we made some little plans for the future, but the interview hasn’t ended yet –
MM: I wanted to talk with you because I think your example can be very inspiring, you have a broad vision of what has happen and I wanted, before ending, you to talk a bit about this new book that you have prepared.
SC: To work on it is really interesting. I have always been fascinated about this concept of “world music”, created by English people in 1987. Some people don’t like it because they bring all the music from the world in the same the bag, you know. In France you have the parallel term, that is is “sono mondiale”, created in 1983. At that time, according to the director of the music distribution company Melody, at the beginning of the 1980s, if you went to America to promote an African artist, there were no shops of world music, there were of pop, rock, jazz, classic… So he went to the jazz store and they didn’t want albums of African music together with the others. So, where to find African records in France? In the African small stores, that are selling food, textiles… they know each other and they had some cassettes and CDs.When the producers began to find this music, they got fascinated music and began to promote it but they didn’t have where to put them in the stores. That’s why those English people created the term “world music”, so, when you go to the store and you want to find Salif Keita or Boubacar Traoré or Ali, you go to “world music”. Many people don’t like the term because they say that those English people put all the world music in the same bag: Latinos, African, Arab, Indian…
What have I done? I have tried to make a definition of “world music”. Each people have their own definition. The reason to make this book is when I was invited to make a lecture about world music in a school. I thought it would be easy, it could take me five minutes to prepare the lecture. And when I began to read the books, each one has his/her own explanation. So what I have done, better than reading 100 books, is to find that people who created the concept in England in 1987. It was not easy. 27 promotors, journalists and music lovers met in London in a pub and decided to create the term “world music”. I wanted to know exactly which is the definition from that people who are criticized. It was not easy because they are in higher positions and they don’t know me. I sent them emails and they didn’t answer. Thanks to my contacts, like the manager of Tinariwen, I met people like Ben Mandelson, he gave me other contacts… After a few years I have met all that people. Sometimes it took six months before the answer. At the end, it was a long work, I have succeeded in interviewing all these people, asking them how the idea began, what was the purpose and why some people don’t like it.
All this is the book, to say the truth of what is “world music”. You don’t need to buy 100 books; I have made all those interviews and I have made a retrospective of before 1987 how they arrived to “world music”, from the African music of the 50s, how it has grown.Before France, Abidjan was the capital of the world music. And then in the 80s, because of the economic problems in Ivory Coast, all the people moved to Paris: Salif Keita, Mori Kante, Youssou N’Dour, Manu Dibango… all those people moved to Paris at the beginning of the 80s and there they began to produce. The book is not to about my life, it is about this complexity of the term “world music”. You understand this better from someone who have been close than from the books. I’ve got the information direct from the mouth of those people.
UPBEAT PLATFORM: BEST NEW TALENT AWARD FOR ZARINA PRVASEVDA
I like this news. When I participated as a jury for this award together with Balázs Weyer and Chris Eckman, this Macedonian singer was one of those I supported to pass to the next step. After our judging, a shortlist of 10 finalists was created, which went on to the voting phase by the public. The truth is that there has been an extraordinary level and several other artists would have also been excellent winners. You can consult here the list of those 10 finalists. I hope they have the best of luck in their careers and, for now, congratulations, Zarina!
Here is Zarina live with her band:
BRIEF NEWS FROM THE MEDIA, CHARTS AND SISTER PROJECTS
- #1 for Transglobal World Music Chart in October 2023 is: Jarak Qaribak, by Dudu Tassa & Jonny Greenwood
- Mundofonías: the three favourites of the month are Aga Khan Master Musicians’s Nowruz, Bolinus brandaris [V.A.] and Eliza Carthy Trio’s Conversations we’ve had before.
Reminder
TALK AT WOMEX: RESHAPING THE NARRATIVE
The complete name of this panel is Reshaping the Narrative – Gender, authority and new approaches to music journalism.
The other ladies are Martyna van Nieuwland and Andrea Voets. Click on their names to read a bio.
It will happen on Thursday 26th of October at 15:15 in Conference Room 2 | Palexco. More details, here.
Do you have a call of interest for our community that you want to share? Let me know asap
OPEN CALLS AND PROFESSIONAL EVENTS
At the moment I have no idea of open calls.
About professional events, as I mentioned above, I will be soon in Manchester for the annual meeting of the European Folk Network. Short summary, from the website: “The Conference programme includes opportunities to hear about the situation for traditional arts in Ukraine from musician and festival promoter Anastasiya Vortyuk, about traditional arts surviving in crisis with the Armagh Rhymers from Northern Ireland, about cultural tourism (who does it benefit?), about Members’ own areas of work in special interest groups (such as artists, storytellers, national organisations and others) – and more opportunities to discuss EFN’s future plans including the European Folk Day project.”
The panel about cultural turism will include my partner Pablo Camino (in the portrait), from Spain is Music, a privileged mind oriented to create personalized experiences with music with roots always present. It will be enlightening.
MEET ME AT
If you happen to attend these events, drop me a line. If you are not, they can be interesting for you too in any case. They are special events.
- October, 18-21, Manchester. English Folk Expo, which this year hosts the annual meeting of the European Folk Network.
- Womex. 25-29 October, La Coruña.
- 18-19 November. Hamburg, Germany. At the Elbphilarmonie there will be a wonderful program curated by alba Kultur, called Festival “Kurdistan”. Click here to discover the full program.
- 22 November. Brussels. Concert by Ali Doğan Gönültaş for Muziekpublique.
- 30 November – 2 December. Skopje, Makedonia. PIN Conference.
WHO WE ARE AND SISTER PROJECTS
Mapamundi Música is an agency of management and booking. Learn more here. Check our proposals at our website.
We also offer you our Mundofonías radio show, probably the leader about world music in Spanish language (on 50 stations in 18 countries). We produce the Transglobal World Music Chart with our partner Ángel Romero from WorldMusicCentral.com.
Feel free to request info if you wish. For further information about us, get in touch by email, telephone (+34 676 30 28 82), our website or at our Facebook.